i mean, the polls suggest that there's a clear advantage for romney from that first debate, but it's kind of stabilizing, where nonetheless, if ryan has a strong night tonight, congressman ryan, it will reinforce a storyline and amplification. that will be a problem for democrats. >> again, we're going to look at these pictures. this is air force 2 obviously preparing for the vice president to step down off the plane, and he will be heading to the debate site. talk a little bit about what's at stake here because often the vice presidential debates don't really make that much difference when you take a look at the overall picture, but you still have some people, especially after obama's kind of lackluster performance, who are undecided, who are actually looking at this and now you have mitt romney and obama neck and neck now. >> yeah. i think a lot of things change in that first presidential debate, which makes this -- which makes this somewhat more consequential than usual. as you point out, people don't usually vote for the vice president. the vice presidential debate is not a centr